Arvie Smith's guest appearances

Arvie Smith

OPB's State of Wonder

Quentin Tarantino

Chuck Klosterman

John Doe

Jason Isbell

Paul Simon

Lily Tomlin

Colson Whitehead

Willie Nelson

George Takei

Wayne Coyne

Matt Sheehy

Tracy K. Smith

Craig Finn

Aaron Draplin

Jay Som

OwlTail

Tony Kushner

Joan Shelley

This week on 'State of Wonder,' the writer behind 'Angels in America' and the movies 'Lincoln' and 'Munich' on writing for today, the head of Portland Center Stage on the hit musical 'Fun Home' and more.Tony Kushner Finds the Humanity in the Epic - 1:05Playwright Tony Kushner is a fearless explorer of spaces where the personal meets the political. His two-part masterpiece, "Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes," kicked down the door to a discussion of the AIDS epidemic, and his screenwriting work on films like "Lincoln" and "Munich" manage to find the most internal, human stories in mammoth historical events. Kushner is headed to Oregon to deliver the keynote speech at the Oregon Arts Summit on Oct. 6, and we got him on the phone to talk about what he's working on now, including a play about President Trump (maybe) and a new take on "West Side Story" with his regular collaborator, Steven Spielberg.Painter Arvie Smith Wins the Governor's Art Award for Lifetime Achievement - 8:53To celebrate the Oregon Arts Summit and the 50th anniversary of the Oregon Arts Commission, Governor Kate Brown has resurrected the Governor’s Art Awards after a 10-year hiatus. The big winners of the Lifetime Achievement Awards are Portland painter Arvie Smith and the Kalapuya and Coos storyteller Esther Stutzman. Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts, Portland Opera and The James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation are also taking home awards. We sat down with Smith last year before his solo show at the Portland Art Museum to discuss his vivid, explosive paintings rich with political overtones, humor, and heartbreak.opbmusic Session in the Woods with Folk Singer Joan Shelley - 16:07This year, folk singer Joan Shelley released her fifth solo album with some big-name help. Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy produced and recorded the album in his Chicago studio. With those massive resources at her fingertips, Shelley could have gone big with a fuller sound and plenty of bells and whistles; instead, she doubled down on a minimalist sound that has made her stand out in an increasingly grandiose music industry. Recently, Shelley and guitarist Nathan Salsburg performed two songs for OPB on a hiking trail in Portland’s Marquam Nature Park. You can find videos at opbmusic. Chris Coleman on Directing the Tony-Winning Musical 'Fun Home' and Portland Center Stage's Upcoming Season - 24:15Portland Center State, the city’s biggest theater company, opened its 30th season this month with a most unlikely musical: the Tony-award-winning, coming-of-age story “Fun Home,” based on the graphic novel by cartoonist Alison Bechdel. It's the story of Bechdel's own coming out in contrast to the closeted, repressed life her father lived, and the title refers to a nickname she and her siblings had for the family house, which also happened to be the town's funeral home. You will never laugh so hard at kids making up a musical commercial about embalming. We talk with artistic director Chris Coleman about the production, which is the first by a local theater on the West Coast, as well as the rest of the season.

This week on 'State of Wonder,' the writer behind 'Angels in America' and the movies 'Lincoln' and 'Munich' on writing for today, the head of Portland Center Stage on the hit musical 'Fun Home' and more. Tony Kushner Finds the Humanity in the Epic - 1:05 Playwright Tony Kushner is a fearless explorer of spaces where the personal meets the political. His two-part masterpiece, "Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes," kicked down the door to a discussion of the AIDS epidemic, and his screenwriting work on films like "Lincoln" and "Munich" manage to find the most internal, human stories in mammoth historical events. Kushner is headed to Oregon to deliver the keynote speech at the Oregon Arts Summit on Oct. 6, and we got him on the phone to talk about what he's working on now, including a play about President Trump (maybe) and a new take on "West Side Story" with his regular collaborator, Steven Spielberg. Painter Arvie Smith Wins the Governor's Art Award for Lifetime Achievement - 8:53 To celebrate the Oregon Arts Summit and the 50th anniversary of the Oregon Arts Commission, Governor Kate Brown has resurrected the Governor’s Art Awards after a 10-year hiatus. The big winners of the Lifetime Achievement Awards are Portland painter Arvie Smith and the Kalapuya and Coos storyteller Esther Stutzman. Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts, Portland Opera and The James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation are also taking home awards. We sat down with Smith last year before his solo show at the Portland Art Museum to discuss his vivid, explosive paintings rich with political overtones, humor, and heartbreak. opbmusic Session in the Woods with Folk Singer Joan Shelley - 16:07 This year, folk singer Joan Shelley released her fifth solo album with some big-name help. Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy produced and recorded the album in his Chicago studio. With those massive resources at her fingertips, Shelley could have gone big with a fuller sound and plenty of bells and whistles; instead, she doubled down on a minimalist sound that has made her stand out in an increasingly grandiose music industry. Recently, Shelley and guitarist Nathan Salsburg performed two songs for OPB on a hiking trail in Portland’s Marquam Nature Park. You can find videos at opbmusic. Chris Coleman on Directing the Tony-Winning Musical 'Fun Home' and Portland Center Stage's Upcoming Season - 24:15 Portland Center State, the city’s biggest theater company, opened its 30th season this month with a most unlikely musical: the Tony-award-winning, coming-of-age story “Fun Home,” based on the graphic novel by cartoonist Alison Bechdel. It's the story of Bechdel's own coming out in contrast to the closeted, repressed life her father lived, and the title refers to a nickname she and her siblings had for the family house, which also happened to be the town's funeral home. You will never laugh so hard at kids making up a musical commercial about embalming. We talk with artistic director Chris Coleman about the production, which is the first by a local theater on the West Coast, as well as the rest of the season.

Sept. 30: Tony Kushner, Fun Home at PCS, Joan Shelley, Arvie Smith

Rasheed Jamal

August Wilson

This week on State of Wonder, we’re going to spend the hour exploring how the region’s artists are using their work to process the hurricane of emotions that erupted after last week’s deadly shootings of two African American men in Louisiana and Minnesota, and five policemen in Dallas — although as several of our guests point out, it's nothing new.  What's Race Got To Do With It?We begin the show at a recent event organized by a group called the Color of Now on Monday night, where more than 150 people crowded into Imago Theatre. The night began with a performance by actor Joseph Gibson from "Hands Up: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments,” a series of seven monologues by black playwrights. Next, Color of Now artistic director Chantal DeGroat dug into a wide-ranging conversation about race and social justice with the local theater and social justice veteran Kevin Jones, moving from Jones’s stories about seeing Malcolm X as a child and struggling with early affirmative action at IBM to Oregon’s troubled history with race.The Red Curtain And The Thin Blue Line - 13:28One of the people to see "Hands Up" in recent weeks was Portland Police Captain Mike Crebs. Unlike community meetings and other events, he says the show was unique because he had to sit silently and simply listen to the voices of African American men and women talking about how they move through the world and what it's like to encounter the police. Crebs was so moved he met up with one of the actors a couple of days later to talk it through.Hip-Hop Artists Mic Capes and Rasheed Jamal - 19:58Hip hop has been one of the most important vehicles for the African-American community — especially the under-30 set — to talk about grief, anger, and next steps forward. We caught up with two artists this week who have been writing about justice issues for years: Mic Capes and Rasheed Jamal. With a big voice and a lyric sensibility to match, Capes has one of the largest megaphones on the St Johns scene. And Jamal's been on Portland stages for five years, with a style that’s picked up speed and intensity. The two talk about whether music has moved the needle on race and police shootings and Capes cover of NWA's "F--k The Police."Music For Mourning - 29:47Portland Police sergeant and classically trained pianist Jim Quackenbush plays the third movement from Samuel Barber’s piano sonata. He calls it a song of mourning. "You can hear the desolation, the desperation, the destruction," he says. "Music is what we use when we don't have words. In moments like this last week, I have no words."Aunt Jemima, Buckwheat, and Don't Shoot — Why None of This Is New - 36:00When you see Pacific Northwest College of Art Professor Emeritus Arvie Smith’s vivid, explosive paintings at the Portland Art Museum later this month, you might think they were conceived and created last week, but to know Smith’s work is to realize, there’s nothing new about what happened in Minneapolis and Baton Rouge this month. He tells us about his art and life, which is book-ended on one end by the Jim Crow South, and on the other by smart phone videos capturing the shooting of black Americans by police. Writer Melanie Alldritt Doesn't Want to Be Beautiful - 44:43In a world where we think we’ve seen everything, the videos of the shootings of Alton Sterling and, especially, Philando Castile were shocking because of the intimacy they offered. People took to the streets and to the internet across the country. People mourned and raged on social media. And a number of prominent local writers shared an essay by a young writer that caught our eye. It’s in "Nailed Magazine," and it’s called “I Don’t Want to Be Beautiful” by Melanie Alldritt. We invited her in to read it for us and discuss how writing lets her work through these experiences.

This week on State of Wonder, we’re going to spend the hour exploring how the region’s artists are using their work to process the hurricane of emotions that erupted after last week’s deadly shootings of two African American men in Louisiana and Minnesota, and five policemen in Dallas — although as several of our guests point out, it's nothing new. What's Race Got To Do With It? We begin the show at a recent event organized by a group called the Color of Now on Monday night, where more than 150 people crowded into Imago Theatre. The night began with a performance by actor Joseph Gibson from "Hands Up: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments,” a series of seven monologues by black playwrights. Next, Color of Now artistic director Chantal DeGroat dug into a wide-ranging conversation about race and social justice with the local theater and social justice veteran Kevin Jones, moving from Jones’s stories about seeing Malcolm X as a child and struggling with early affirmative action at IBM to Oregon’s troubled history with race. The Red Curtain And The Thin Blue Line - 13:28 One of the people to see "Hands Up" in recent weeks was Portland Police Captain Mike Crebs. Unlike community meetings and other events, he says the show was unique because he had to sit silently and simply listen to the voices of African American men and women talking about how they move through the world and what it's like to encounter the police. Crebs was so moved he met up with one of the actors a couple of days later to talk it through. Hip-Hop Artists Mic Capes and Rasheed Jamal - 19:58 Hip hop has been one of the most important vehicles for the African-American community — especially the under-30 set — to talk about grief, anger, and next steps forward. We caught up with two artists this week who have been writing about justice issues for years: Mic Capes and Rasheed Jamal. With a big voice and a lyric sensibility to match, Capes has one of the largest megaphones on the St Johns scene. And Jamal's been on Portland stages for five years, with a style that’s picked up speed and intensity. The two talk about whether music has moved the needle on race and police shootings and Capes cover of NWA's "F--k The Police." Music For Mourning - 29:47 Portland Police sergeant and classically trained pianist Jim Quackenbush plays the third movement from Samuel Barber’s piano sonata. He calls it a song of mourning. "You can hear the desolation, the desperation, the destruction," he says. "Music is what we use when we don't have words. In moments like this last week, I have no words." Aunt Jemima, Buckwheat, and Don't Shoot — Why None of This Is New - 36:00 When you see Pacific Northwest College of Art Professor Emeritus Arvie Smith’s vivid, explosive paintings at the Portland Art Museum later this month, you might think they were conceived and created last week, but to know Smith’s work is to realize, there’s nothing new about what happened in Minneapolis and Baton Rouge this month. He tells us about his art and life, which is book-ended on one end by the Jim Crow South, and on the other by smart phone videos capturing the shooting of black Americans by police. Writer Melanie Alldritt Doesn't Want to Be Beautiful - 44:43 In a world where we think we’ve seen everything, the videos of the shootings of Alton Sterling and, especially, Philando Castile were shocking because of the intimacy they offered. People took to the streets and to the internet across the country. People mourned and raged on social media. And a number of prominent local writers shared an essay by a young writer that caught our eye. It’s in "Nailed Magazine," and it’s called “I Don’t Want to Be Beautiful” by Melanie Alldritt. We invited her in to read it for us and discuss how writing lets her work through these experiences.

July 16: Art And Race—Mic Capes & Rasheed Jamal, August Wilson Red Door Project, Arvie Smith & More